The Dragon Mage
by ElMarquis
Summary: After a duel with Tom Riddle, Harry is sent late into the founder's period by Chronos' Watch. Does he actually want to return and who are the Black Order.


Harry spent two days in Diagon Alley where he purchased three custom-crafted wands, each one of Yew with cores of Manticore and Chimera hair in one, Pegasus feather and the feather of the Morrigan. The final wand core was of Griffin's mane and werewolf fur. Each core had been soaked in a solution of Phoenix Tears and Basilisk Venom.

He'd managed to move the contents of his vault, 687, to a portable vault, otherwise known as a 'Gringotts' Secure Moneybag' which allowed him to carry his money with him without the risks of it being stolen. Now, the soft leather purse made of the shed underbelly-skin of a Hebridian Black Dragon rested against his chest, concealed and held on by a sticking charm, and with it, five hundred thousand galleons.

After the return of Voldemort, Harry also commissioned several battlerobes made from the scavenged hide of the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets, while the rest of the cadaver was in a compartment of his shrunken trunk along with the contents of the Potter Heirloom vault, notably weapons, jewels and most importantly, the library of the Potter Family. This incredible trunk was currently a tiny facet peeking out from behind the black stone of the Potter family ring, ready to be removed at the owner's wish.

During Voldemort's resurrection, he'd been subjected to a pain beyond any cruciatus curse. The Dark Lord had attempted to possess him and failed. During a mental counterattack, Harry tore into the 'knowledge' core of Riddle's mind and for the weeks since the event, he had been slowly assimilating Riddle's extensive knowledge.

Unlike the popular perception, Tom Riddle was both a Light Wizard and a Dark Wizard. Most magic was completely neutral while few spells, such as the Patronus and Unforgivable curses are true Light and Dark magic. Light magic was a branch long lost with very little known about it, however, the budding Dark Lord knew almost as much about the ancient Light magic as he did about Dark magic.

A week later and the Dursley household was almost completely deserted, save for one teenager. The Dursley's themselves had left for a holiday in Majorca while just an hour before, Harry had sensed a fluctuation in the wards as the Order guard disapparated. Now he sensed a second, much more powerful fluctuation as a dozen black-robed men appeared in a burst of pops. Behind them was the skeletal visage of Tom Marvolo Riddle, Dark Lord extraordinaire and general homicidal genocidal maniac.

Harry sighed and switched on his battlerobes and put all of his possessions into the shrunken trunk attached to his signet ring before slowly striding out of the room, his first wand in his left hand and one of his newer wands in his right.

Halfway down the staircase and he encountered a Death Eater as he climbed around the corner of the staircase, likely in search of Harry. Absently charging the 'Gladio' sword curse into both wands, Harry slashed them across his torso, watching dispassionately as the Death Eater keeled over, two horizontal slashes in his lower torso.

'Hopefully that might have the Ministry on it's way' he mused, stepping around the body.

Knowing that one way or another, he couldn't avoid battle, Harry stepped into the hallway and slowly strode toward the front door and the Death Eaters who encircled it. Should he die now, he would do so in a blaze of fire and death with as many of Voldemort's men as he could take with him.

Discarding his glasses, he used a spell which applied a momentary burst of pain and fixed his eyesight, Harry stepped forward and obliterated the door with another curse.

A bludgeoning hex sent an advancing Death Eater reeling while another fell to a twin slash with the gladio curse. Separating the Death Eaters into two lines and standing opposite Riddle, Harry bowed slightly, not taking his eyes off the Dark Lord. Surprisingly, Riddle returned the bow before settling back into a duelling stance. A silent agreement between the two opponents occurred and Riddle threw a cutting curse his way.

Swaying to one side, Harry avoided the spell and sent a chain of reductor curses interspersed with cutting and piercing spells. Raising his holly wand, he created a large serpent and banished it toward the Dark Lord and summoned a magus shield to deflect a burst of pure magic as the serpent was atomized.

Riddle flicked his wand and a translucent globe enveloped the two duellers as they circled one another, occasionally firing a spell to test their opponent's defences. Eventually, Harry released a burst of Fiendfyre which washed toward the Dark Lord who simply separated it with a wedge-shaped shield which redirected the flame around him.

"Harry Potter..." he hissed sibilantly during a lull; "Dark Arts, I am impressed, what would Dumbledore say?"

"Ah, now, Captain Lemon-drop is misguided." Harry replied; "He believes in light and dark while I believe that it is more to do with the intent behind a spell. I could bludgeon someone to death with a levitated rock or I could use the Imperius to prevent someone committing suicide."

He once again went on the attack, leading with a heart attack curse and a bone-shattering curse followed by a bolt of lightning. Riddle once again created a translucent convex shield and absorbed the spells before firing off a shredding hex and a series of organ liquefying curses at Harry who once again dodged them.

By now, Aurors and members of Dumbledore's Order surrounded the translucent sphere under which the boy saviour and the Dark Lord duelled. They looked on in horror as the snake-like man fired curse after curse at the boy-who-lived and gasped as each one was dodged gracefully.

Harry upped the attack, firing a disembowelling hex, a decapitation curse and a blood boiling curse in the midst of a stream of high powered obliteration curses and gouging spells. Once again he used his holly wand to create an inferno of the cursed Fiendfyre. It's basilisk form lashed toward the Dark Lord before retreating back in a whip-like fashion several times. Unfortunately at this point, steam began to emerge from the wand as it overheated, unused to being used for spells so powerful.

As Harry cancelled the Fiendfyre and slide back into his wrist holster, he cursed for having both of his new wands in the same holster, so the one which remained was inaccessible as that hand was already occupied. Harry reversed a bolt of black magic back toward it's caster as he mused over what to do next.

Silently disappearing, he appeared behind the Dark Lord and fired an explosive castration curse straight into his back before disapparating again.

"POTTER!" screamed Voldemort.

"Yes oh Dark Lord?" mocked Harry as he dodged a stream of spells; "Don't you like the explosive castration curse?"

Apparating again, the young man flickered around the circular arena, firing curses from everywhere. A trident-piercing curse gouged Riddle's shoulders while the central prong of the three piercing curses was deflected and a bolt of lightning seared his head. However, to Harry's annoyance, he found himself unable to apparate as an anti-apparition jinx went up around them. He rolled out of the way of a disembowelling curse and replied with the sickly green vortex of the killing curse.

Riddle froze momentarily before slamming up a block of black granite to absorb the curse and fired a cutting curse back. Harry was too slow dodging and the very edge of the curse slashed a long scar into his left cheek just as he called a bolt of lightning fell from the sky and impacted just feet from Riddle.

The two continued to duel, Dark Arts spells exchanged at a rate and level of skill rarely seen before. However, twenty minutes of flashes and blasts later and Harry was sent flying as the ground itself rose, his wand flying into the air and vanishing. Despite the fact it returned to it's holster, he could do nothing as Riddle bound him in ropes.

Amplifying his voice, Harry rasped; "So Tom Marvolo Riddle, two half-bloods, both the most powerful wizards of their generations face off. Both were muggle raised. Think of Ollivander, Albus and Aberforth Dumbledore, of Gellert Grindlewald, Minerva McGonagall and Severus Snape. All half-bloods. Of my mother, Lily Potter who's blood rituals were responsible for your first downfall, Filius Flitwick, the part-goblin."

"Your point, Potter?" asked Riddle, genuinely curious.

"How is it that Crabbe, Goyle can be truly superior to those I have mentioned? If you are a true champion of wizard-kind, it is the rampant discrimination and needless, unexplained hatred of lesser blooded and those with non-human blood that should be stamped out. Where you can simply hand over a sack of galleons and you have committed no crime." Harry responded hoarsely; "This world is corrupted and the pureblood cause is of no help to it, instead, it leads the wizarding world closer to implosion, where purebloods marry their cousins, then their immediate families and the ancient houses inter-breed into extinction and slaughter the muggleborn for their situation of birth. What would you think if you were truly a muggleborn Tom? Would you want a wizard to appear out of nowhere and kill you for something you cannot help or would you fight against that wizard and end up dead anyway?"

Riddle slowly placed his wand into his robes and knelt by Harry.

"You have my true respect Harry. Would you walk with me into a new age for wizard-kind? If you speak truly, would you champion it?" he asked.

Harry chuckled lightly before responding tiredly; "No Tom, it is too late for me. Not believing I could survive this fight in any fashion, I constricted the centre of my magical core. I have probably twenty minutes until it implodes, taking me with it. If you see the light-... no, the grey, do what is right, not what is easy. Bring justice and equality. Now go, I have fought the good fight and hope that this is the end of said fight."

Riddle reached within his robes and withdrew a silver pendant, a circular ring with an hourglass set in it. Wrapping the necklace around the teenager's neck, he said softly;

"Forgive me."

Harry replied; "Aye, do what is right instead of what is easy."

He slowly closed his eyes and slumped as the ropes vanished from around him. Riddle stood up and drew his wand and prodded it lightly against the pendant. A swirl of white light appeared for half a minute, a black cloud emerging, screaming, before it died down, leaving an empty patch of land, minus the boy-who-lived.

Summoning a random Death Eater, he thrust his wand into the Dark Mark and after a moment coldly butchered the minion with an organ liquefying curse.

Still within the translucent shield, Riddle watched as his minions appeared around him in clouds of black smoke. Once they were all assembled, save those whose cowardice caused them to run and those in Azkaban. He slowly gazed around them and the Aurors and Dumbledore loyalists still outside the shield.

"Harry Potter sssaid sssomething interesssting earlier..." Riddle commented; "Do what is right, not what is easy."

He paused for a moment before raising his wand in a blur of light and unleashed a spray of curses. Within seconds, Malfoy was lying disembowelled on the grass, Nott was writhing as his blood boiled, Crabbe and Goyle had been obliterated by twin blasting curses.

Like a god of war, Riddle tore through the ranks of his Death Eaters, striking like an enraged serpent. His spellwork was both beautiful and brutal. Pettigrew was bludgeoned into submission, bound in steel cord and strung upside-down in the air under anti-Animagus charms as he swerved around and flayed Jugson with a firewhip. Finally a fan of killing curses sent the final Death Eaters slamming into the ground in a swirl of green death magic.

Finally, he levitated Pettigrew and dumped him at Dumbledore's feet before tossing his bone-white wand in the air and catching it by the tip and proffering it to the aged sorcerer.

_Harry slammed into the muddy ground of a worn track. After a minute of listening to the silence surrounding him in the leaf-canopy covered road, he slowly stood and stretched, absently healing the single scar across his cheek which Riddle had inflicted. When a location-mapping charm put him at exactly where Privet Drive should have been, he tried several other charms. Finally, a Tempus charm brought unexpected results which had him swearing in a mixture of parseltongue and bastardized Arabic._

_**'JULY 995 AD'**_

_Still unaware of the fact he was swearing in a both bastardized Arabic and parsel, or where he picked that habit up from, Harry slowly considered the facts as he had them._

_His core was no longer in a state of impending implosion. Two, he was feeling much more powerful, much more focused, like a veil had been lifted from his mind. Three, he was a thousand years in the past with no way back. Four, he had enough money to buy a moderate estate and had several sets of robes and his wands. He also had access to a library of magic and heirlooms including blades and wands._

"_Fate! Majdoube ibn himaar!" he swore, muttering moments later; "Fate, stupid son of a donkey."_

_For another minute, Harry continued randomly spitting invectives in parsel and Arabic before his mind caught up and he began to work out what to do. With the knowledge of Riddle, he had a good grip of both the written and spoken languages of tenth century Britain, including Welsh, Anglo-Saxon, some Gaelic and Nordic as well as some of the continental languages._

_Also from Riddle's knowledge, he could easily get masteries in Dark Arts, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Potions, Transfiguration and Charms. Harry's first inclination was to get to Diagon Alley, but then he had a realisation. Within the last decade, Hogwarts school had been founded. It would be an excellent base for his research into temporal magic. _

_Surprisingly, Riddle also could have applied for a muggle doctorate in chemistry. Apparently it was a necessary study for setting up gas explosion 'accidents'. Not that that was the only muggle practice he had experience in, but was also a master swordsman and an expert in the saddle._

_A moment of contemplation later and Harry swept his wand across his head and slicked back his hair into a lengthened state and tied it back with a piece of black ribbon. A second swipe cleaned the general muck off him and his black battlerobes. Creating a mirror, he examined himself for a moment before pulling a sapphire adorned longsword from the trunk vault and placed it in a sheath which he hung on his left hip while a second, slightly larger and unadorned sword hung on his back, hilt and tip protruding from opposite sides and ends of his cloak. A quick charm cleaned the pink scar on his left cheek to a clean, pale horizontal line._

_Quickly returning the trunk to his ring, Harry apparated to Hogsmeade where he bought a horse for a single sickle. The black charger enhanced the appearance he wanted to cultivate. From his black basilisk hide boots, battlerobes, billowing cloak and a gleaming black warhorse all contributed to the man who would be known as Arlyss Chronos Mortesdawn._

_Pulling out of his musings, Harry nodded to the stable boy and dug his heels into the horse's flank and rode elegantly out of Hogsmeade, headed for the castle which had been his home for four years._

_Twenty minutes in the saddle later and Harry rode through the open gates, trotting up the lawns, his sword conspicuously glinting in the morning sunlight as he stood and sat in the saddle as he rode up toward the stable and front doors to the main keep of the castle._

_It was virtually unrecognisable, with two square towers at one end of a massive cruciform building, a circular tower at the opposite end and a fourth, much taller, square tower on one side of the cross. The whole thing was encircled by a low curtain wall with cuboid gatehouses on each side and a bridge across a ravine beyond the circular tower._

_Harry was on high alert as both of the main doors were hanging off their hinges and a few bodies were strewn across the courtyard. Sighing, he decided that he wasn't born to live in peace but to serve in war before drawing a wand and a dagger._

_Striding in, he caught the attention of a rough looking man who accosted him;_

"_You one of Ravenclaw's mudblood lovers?" he asked._

_Harry paused for a moment, sniffed contemptuously before slamming his dagger into the thug's chest and then stabbed it into the back of his spine as he fell before striding onward into the central hall. Bound in the centre were four people, one an aged, greying man with long hair and a beard, the rest were female. Absently, he noted that the youngest was mildly attractive and looked somewhat like the elder. They both had dark hair and similar features. The fourth was a blonde haired young woman, dressed in glaring canary-yellow robes._

_'Looks like Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff with Ravenclaw junior' Harry mused; 'Hufflepuff doesn't look like the mumsy woman depicted in the stories, Gryffindor looks old and Ravenclaw senior isn't as young as we were told...'_

"_Who are you and where's the guard?" called the man that Harry assumed was the leader by his position on the raised dais._

"_Mortesdawn." Harry replied; "And your guard fell on my dagger. Twice. Once in the chest, once in the back."_

_Two thugs rushed him, one from each side. The first was disembowelled by the keen blade while the second died as the steel pierced his heart. Withdrawing the dagger, Harry drew it back and hurled it the length of the hall. It turned hilt over tip several times before burying it's full length in the leader's throat._

_Harry leaned on the hilt of his sword, standing back slightly with an infuriatingly smug look adorning his face which naturally provoked his opponents into rushing him. The first died as Harry summoned the dagger back towards him, timed just to cross paths with the assailant who collapsed, blood spurting from the back of his throat._

_Suddenly, there was an explosion of borderline Dark Arts spells as Harry went on the offensive. A spell-chain of powerful cutting curses, bone-shattering curses, constrictor spells and gouging curses sprayed around the hall with heart-stopping accuracy and heart-destroying lethality._

_A couple of bodies were transformed into massive bears and set on their former colleagues as they were animated. A bundle of spears were conjured and banished at a group who tried to sneak out of the doors as a statue was charmed to attack the closest enemy._

_Harry could almost say he was enjoying the chance to creatively apply his newfound skills in such an environment while still being able to be on the moral high ground as he was saving lives. Transfiguration, conjuration, charms and curses were employed with creativity and a certain enthusiasm. Eventually, he ceased playing around and simply began firing heart attack curses which brought down all the invaders in the Hall._

_Striding across the body-strewn room, Harry quickly retrieved his dagger again and released the four prisoners. Gryffindor was a tall, thickset man wearing simple, woollen-spun robes, a moderate beard and quite long hair adorning a scarred face. Hufflepuff was younger than both, if he had to guess, she would be in her mid-twenties with white-blonde hair and a thin frame. Ravenclaw was, despite obvious signs of ageing, a beautiful woman, though quite haughty and regal. Her daughter was similar to her, mother having black hair, while daughter had dark brown. They both had sapphire eyes and wore similar black dresses._

"_Any more of the scum?" Harry asked as he vanished the ropes._

"_Shouldn't be." Gryffindor replied, massaging his wrists; "Salazar took the students down into his chamber and sealed it when they breached the gates. I'm thankful you arrived stranger, I have no doubt that in short order, we'd be killed and the women raped."_

_Harry nodded in acknowledgement before striding off, heading for the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. Dashing up several flights of stairs, he came to what would one day be Moaning Myrtle's Bathroom. Now, it was an airy, circular chamber with a fountain-like construction in the centre._

_Idly hissing at the fountain, Harry put impervious charms all over himself before jumping down the chute to the Chamber. He quickly strode through the entrance cave having slid down before coming to the circular vault door which swung open on his order._

_Smartly stepping aside to avoid the decapitation curse which scythed toward him, Harry strode into the central chamber. Unlike the slime-coated room of nightmares, it was made of a light green granite with just two serpent statues, guarding the entrance to the basilisk's layer._

"_Too slow!" Harry called out smugly, sidestepping a second decapitation curse; "Your little problem has been dealt with."_

"_Dealt with?" asked Slytherin, a tall wizard with a silver goatee and grey hair pulled into a short ponytail._

"_Humiliatingly, painfully and very fatally." Harry confirmed happily._

"_You are an interesting wizard..." Slytherin mused; "May I ask how you got down here."_

_Harry laughed for a moment before switching to parseltongue; §Oh, that would be telling...§_

_He swivelled about and strode out of the chamber, ignoring the lines of shocked students and the mildly interested looking founder as he swept out, using the cloak-billowing effect to it's fullest._

_A simple matter of unshrinking his Firebolt and Harry was on the surface again, having hurtled up the pipe at a breakneck speed. Once again striding through the corridors of the castle, he made his way to the Great Hall._

_Apart from half a dozen of the invaders who were trying to sneak down a staircase, the hallways were deserted. By the time Harry had passed, one invader had fallen off the stairs, falling two floors. Repeatedly. The second had tripped over the edge of a tapestry and through an open window, plummeting onto the rocks below. The third and fourth accidentally ran one another through with their swords, the fifth was killed as a lump of stonework fell from the wall and hit his head and the sixth and final attacker was set on fire as a nearby torch fell from it's bracket. All done with banishing spells, levitation spells, a trip jinx, an unlocking charm, a confundus charm, a summoning spell and a vanishing charm._

_He was smirking smugly as he strode into the Great Hall, hand still holding the vicious blade of his prized stiletto. A simple raised eyebrow and a glare from the elder Ravenclaw nearly had him spilling every secret he had. Instead, he hastily elaborated on his smirk;_

"_I encountered a small group trying to escape. They all had accidents, one fell down two floors, one fell out of a window, two ran each other through, the fifth was hit by a falling stone and one of the torches set the sixth on fire."_

"_They are easily replaced..." hissed a voice from behind him._

_Harry swivelled around to see a tall, pale man with short silvery-grey hair, dressed in loose black robes, a sword hung at his side._

"_Morcar..." hissed Godric._

"_You know one another?" Harry enquired curiously._

"_Aye, Godric here doesn't like me much." commented Morcar; "See, I don't like the way that these four sit in their castle like gods atop a mountain."_

"_Morcar is a dark wizard who revels in bloodshed, death and sorrow." Godric spat; "You kill a child simply to spite the founders of a school."_

"_Gryffindor, don't equate dark with evil. Frankly I'm the former. Now, are you anything of a swordsman Morcar?" asked Harry, eyeing his blade._

"_The best..." responded the dark wizard, licking his lips._

_Harry smirked and cast aside his heavier sword and his cloak before removing his lighter longsword and threw aside it's sheathe before raising it blade vertical to his forehead._

"_To the death?" he asked._

_Moments later, he brought the sword horizontally above his head to block a blow before rolling backwards as he slashed horizontally. Extending his sword with both hands at the same level as his shoulder, he encircled Morcar's blade and jabbed forward, cutting into the back of the dark wizard's hand before backing away._

_He lowered his blade momentarily, a confident smirk adorning his face as Morcar hissed in pain. Harry then slashed heavily downward toward Morcar's head, but quickly redirected it to his flank. The feint worked perfectly as the keen blade sliced deeply into his opponent's flank. He repeated it, this time going from the feint to the head to the other flank, once again cutting deeply._

_Morcar hissed, enraged and charged, sword raised in both hands above his head. The downward blow was easily blocked and he found himself gasping on the floor from a firm kick in the stomach from a basilisk hide boot._

"_Get up!" ordered Harry, stepping back a few paces._

_A downward sword-cut was easily dodged as Harry swayed to one side and jabbed the tip of his sword into Morcar's gut and slapped him across his back with the flat of his blade, instinctively parrying the horizontal slice and placing another jab into his opponent's gut. A very light slash laid open Morcar's back and Harry stepped back briefly before brutally smashing away his sword and slamming the pommel of his sword into his assailant's face before sending him to the floor with a single kick._

"_Get out. Be pleased I spare your life and never return." Harry ordered coldly as he picked up Morcar's sword and smashed into into two jagged pieces on the stones of the wall before placing the hilt of the shattered sword into his hands._

_He watched as the subdued Dark Wizard slowly left, bleeding from multiple wounds, his black robes shredded and blood streaming down his bruised face._

"_I hope that killing him is unnecessary, I hope that humiliation will discourage any evil tendencies." Harry commented as Godric stepped up to him._

"_Aye, I hope that too. What, may I ask, is our saviours name?"_

"_Arlyss Chronos of Mortesdawn." Harry replied, musing to himself; 'Means honourable, could be shortened to Harry. Chronos, a reference to time and Death's dawn. Nice name.'_

In Dumbledore's office, a small group met, including the remaining members of the Golden Trio, Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley. Tom Riddle was there, sat stiffly next to the Headmaster, with Alastor Moody and Severus Snape lurking in opposite corners of the room.

Riddle had returned to a slightly human, if very pale look, with silver-lined black hair swept across his head, the serpent look lost as he had the beginnings of human features returning. Before them were dozens of sheets of parchment scribbled with arithmantic calculations while books were strewn across the room.

"Miss Granger, Mr. Weasley;" Dumbledore sighed; "We're looking for Harry in a slightly unusual way..."

"Basically, as the Headmaster was saying, Harry and I engaged in a duel which he damn nearly won..." Riddle began; "Eventually, I had him bound in ropes but he rather forcibly exorcised some of my views. Unfortunately, by this point, he'd constricted his magical core to the point it was a quarter of an hour from implosion. I used an artefact called Myrddin's Hourglass to prevent that. Unfortunately, it is somewhat uncontrollable and so we no longer no the chronological location of Mr. Potter. And don't worry, I'm a retired Dark Lord."

Despite their misgivings about the retired Dark Lord, the two exchanged a glance and nodded before Hermione spoke up;

"We'll do it, but what do you think Harry would do should he be subjected to temporal marooning?"

"If I was in his place, I'd make my way to Hogwarts to seek help." Ron commented.

"Indeed..." mused Dumbledore, stroking his beard.

Two months after his initial visit to Hogwarts, Harry was to be found striding through the ruins of a Gaulish settlement, in search of a ruined Roman temple, dedicated to Saturn, amongst others, the God of Time.

_Brutally cutting a swathe through the jungle of trees and shrubs surrounding the site with ribbon-cutting curses, he came up to the edge of the wards and created a triangle of runes out of blue fire, which faded backward into the small patch of a misty, translucent sphere._

_An hour of slowly picking apart and re-linking the wards before the trio of runes spun for a moment and opened into a triangular gap in the small patch of the sphere visible._

_Stepping through, he found an idyllic patch of land with a white marble Greco-Roman style temple sat in the centre, a long, square lake down one side and elegant gardens all around it. Still on the alert, Harry threw detection charms all around him, but except for mild repellent wards and standard- if very powerful- household stasis and control wards, nothing came up on his scans._

_Slowly advancing into the central building, he found dozens of busts set into small alcoves looking towards a waist-height column. On it were four scrolls, their ends held by wooden cylinders. The four scrolls surrounded a smoky-grey, egg-like diamond._

_Unconsciously and inexplicably drawn to it, Harry slowly laid his hand on the gem._

_**Well, what do we have here? **mused a voice; **The Black Sorcerer rises again – how... interesting**_

_**What? **Harry yelled mentally, trying to locate, contain and remove the source of the voice._

_**That won't work boyo! **the voice commented cheerfully; **Basically, I was one of three sparks from a dying Oriental Soul Serpent, a dragon if you will. Each of the three sparks became gems like me. One became the possession of a soldier called Sun Tzu, the second became the possession of a line of great Japanese warriors. I am the final and most powerful, passing across Chinese Generals, Mongol Khans, Indian Emperors and finally I served for Sparta for centuries before falling into the hands of the Romans.**_

_**So why do you exist, what is your purpose? **Harry enquired._

_**I am the master of the trio, though now, the only left in existence. I had a link to the other two and was given any knowledge that they learnt. You are worthy, pick me up and take me from my prison and bring those scrolls.**_

_Gathering up the contents, he left the Temple, though not before powering up the maintenance wards and stasis charms. His last act was to place the entire site under a powerful enchantment called the Fidelius Charm, with himself as Secret Keeper. Having the Temple as a personal retreat/holiday home wouldn't go amiss._

Harry spent another month at the Manor he'd bought, deciphering, translating and understanding the contents of the scrolls. Two of them related to Alchemy and the pursuit of turning base metals into gold, while the other two were of more interest to Harry. They both were on the subject of temporal magic, including setting time stasis wards on sites, time stasis charms on people and how to reverse time itself.

The first thing he did was to set up the wards around themanor and begin fortifying it to his liking, with a low, thick curtain wall surrounding the site. The manor house itself was incorporated into a large cruciform building set within a square wall, leaving a keep with four courtyards and gardens, one at each corner, with the cruciform building separating them.

Harry then warded the fortress heavily and installed various muggle-style traps around it, including patches of land which he could cause to temporarily vanish, leaving a gaping void below with dozens of metal spikes at the bottom. Others could be turned into swamps to swallow attackers while the trees themselves where cross-bred with the Whomping Willow, though until activated, they were simply trees. Once activated, they were brutal weapons of war, flailing around their branches like massive whips.

Having fortified the castle, Harry unpacked his library and spent an unknown amount of time simply reading and practicing until he was proficient in the Potter Familial Magic and most areas that Tom Riddle hadn't mastered.

He spent an immense amount of time travelling the world, either in time stasis or simply rolling back time for his own uses. Returning to the continent, he learnt a great deal about wand-crafting in Italy, living for a year with the main branch of the Ollivander family.

He now had another wand with the core of a powdered Manticore's fang soaked in Dragon's blood, Basilisk's venom, fed into the hollow part of a Phoenix feather, all wrapped in the hairs of a Griffin. The wand itself was made from a Roman Stone Pine immersed in Nundu blood and Phoenix tears. Finally, the Soul Dragon gem was set on the rear of the wand as a focus and charging stone, rendering the wand the most powerful in existence. Unfortunately, the gem had picked up his sarcastic sense of humour and could be distracting at times.

While in Greece, he mastered his Animagus form of a gigantic black dragon, the Roman Imperial Dragon. Sailing to Egypt, he went on a curse-breaking rampage, robbing hundreds of tombs, always leaving his signature behind, carved into the walls. His Animagus form, the black dragon, perched on a horizontal battle-staff, clutching a sword, tip down, in one clawed appendage and a wand in his second.

Harry eventually made his way East, stopping in the Arab lands where he learnt from the earliest form of the Assassin's Order, part of the Nizari Ismaeli denomination. His last stop before returning to Europe was a temple in the mountains of Nepal where he learnt much about wandless magic through the use of complicated hand-movements. He was also taught their martial arts, both unarmed combat and the Eastern sword-styles.

When Harry returned to England, he hadn't aged at all, he suspected, due to the hourglass Riddle had used on him. He was now an expert in stealth, curse-breaking and fighting in his Animagus form, giving him the title of the 'Dragon Mage'. Harry now also had expertise in hand-to-hand martial arts, archery, various forms of swordsmanship and manipulation of his body with magic.

Unusually, he'd even learnt _music_. He'd decided that he needed a hobby and learning various forms of music was as good as any. The lute was the most prevalent instrument throughout the world save for the voice and thus he had become an excellent lutanist.

Despite Harry's extensive use of temporal magic, upon his return to Britain, a full year had passed since he'd left Hogwarts after his first visit. Other than being in much better health and wearing numerous extra blades, the Harry who rode up to the gates of Hogwarts was not particularly different.

_Harry broke out of the tree-canopy, his black charger trotting lightly up the track toward Hogwarts. However, something was wrong, a pall of smoke hung over the castle and an acrid smell wafted to his nostrils._

_Though he'd taken to almost permanently having his eyes and senses in his Dragon form, it was unnecessary to work out something was not right. Tying up his horse and line-of-sight apparating a little distance away, he transformed into the elegant form of the midnight-black winged serpent._

_Flapping awkwardly, Harry rose into the air and soared toward the castle. Folding in his wings, Harry dived toward the gates where lines of black-robed figures were firing spells toward the keep of the castle._

_With a blast of fire, Harry slammed into the ground, the dragon's body absorbing the impact easily, though those trapped beneath were less lucky. And those caught in the fire were even less lucky._

_Transforming back into human form, though leaving his eyes and sixth sense in the Dragon form. Dao drawn in moments, he quickly began tearing into the attackers with alacrity. Pulling out a horn made from the fang of a basilisk he'd killed, Harry blew deeply three times before returning it to a pocket and engaging in combat once again._

_His Dao was quickly replaced by the Soul Dragon gem wand, dark curses flowing like a river from the one-man army. He mostly employed battle spells for wide-area damage, Fiendfyre lashing around him from a second wand while roots burst from the ground, crushing dark wizards, hailstorms of arrowheads flying through the air. Finally, he used a spell, one so dangerous that only the most powerful mages could use it._

"_APERI TARTARUS!" he thundered._

_Slowly, a swirling black void opened up, sucking the surrounding wizards into it until Harry closed it, leaving just a dozen men standing. All but one who he recognised were quickly brought down with killing curses._

"_Morcar! My old friend, I believe we have a duel to finish?" Harry said, spreading his arms wide._

_Moments later his longsword was drawn and he charged Morcar, bashing aside his blade and lashing him across the back, leaving a long cut. Blocking several more blows, Harry lashed the dark wizard's hand with the blade and kicked his sword away, thrusting his own into Morcar's heart._

_Quickly modifying the anti-apparition wards to allow him access, Harry vanished and returned moments later with his horse. He jumped into the saddle and galloped up the long lawns toward the locked doors of the castle which swung open as he leapt off his horse._

"_Godric!" he called happily as the founder stepped out._

"_Arlyss, I was wondering if we'd see you again!" replied Godric._

"_Aye, I've been overseas for the last year. I was coming to visit you and once again found you under attack. Otherwise, how's life?" Harry asked._

"_Not good, Rowena passed on, her elder daughter, Philippa is now my ward as Regent Ravenclaw and young Helena and Baron Oswald are dead. Salazar was forcibly fed mind-controlling potions by his apprentice and forced him to try and get rid of all non purebloods before feeding him a slow-acting poison. It's just me and Helga left of the four of us." Godric said sadly; "Morcar isn't the biggest problem, he was only a pawn, Caradoc of Mercia is. Periodically he attacks wizarding centres like Diagon Alley, I fought him once and he's too powerful, I may be the Lion Warlock, but first and foremost, I'm a swordsman. That isn't all though, the Wizen Council have been trying to take over the castle and school, going as far as slandering myself and Helga."_

Within a month, Harry had gained audience with both the English and Scottish kings and was granted, in perpetuity, rights of autonomy for Hogwarts with titles of nobility for himself, Gryffindor and Hufflepuff as Ravenclaw already held title and Slytherin had no child.

Finally, three months of tense skirmishing and the battle with Caradoc came to a head when he attacked Diagon Alley as Harry was purchasing some supplies from the Apothecary.

_Hundreds of black-robed figures flooded the Alley, some shoppers dropped glamours which concealed the typical dark wizard uniform. Everywhere, carnage reigned as shops were burnt and the citizens killed._

_Harry blasted apart a dark wizard with an infuriated swipe of his wand, blocking a killing curse with a conjured slab of marble. It was when he saw a young girl, not much more than a toddler, writhing under the cruciatus curse that Harry was enraged beyond anything seen before._

_Firing a Blood Eagle curse straight at the torturer, he leapt aside, letting a killing curse hurtle past and slam into another wizard. Harry exploded into a burst of the darkest, most lethal and most painful spells he knew. Bloodfire curses took out a small group as he began tracking another wizard with his wand, the sickly yellow organ liquefying curse rocketing across the war-torn alley._

_Using a gravity curse, he crushed another trio, continuing to unleash spell after spell, bone-exploding curses, blood boiling curses, bloodfire curses, intestinal regurgitation spells, eye liquefying spells, impaling curses and death-lighting curses erupting across the alley._

_Suppressing all emotion, he tracked another wizard as he ran and unleashed a killing curse which sent him flying in the swirling vortex of sickly green light. Finally, out of the carnage stepped a man, incredibly pale, scarred and with silvery-grey hair running down to his shoulders._

"_You would do well to join me, a powerful dark wizard..." he hissed._

"_Caradoc I presume. Aye, I am a Dark Wizard, but I am not evil. I do not torture children for personal amusement." Harry replied._

"_Shame."_

_What came next would be remembered for decades as the two wizards faced off, Harry holding no bars as his most lethal spells, killing curses, heart attack curses, decapitation curses, impaling hexes, lightning bolts and blasts of cursed fire including Fiendfyre interspersed with all of the Greater Elemental curses._

_Finally, Harry tore through his magus shield by firing three shield-shattering spells followed by a series of organ-destroying curses with a killing curse._

_He watched with hatred as the Dark Lord slid into the mud, eyes glazed over in death. For a man he had never met, Harry harboured an immense amount of hatred for him, torturing, murdering and raping his way across England hadn't engendered him to the Dragon Mage._

_Harry's cloak and his gleaming armless steel breastplate both bore the symbol he had begun using while in Egypt, leaving nobody in any doubt to the identity of the sorcerer who had killed the scourge of the wizarding world._

_He pulled out of his hate-fuelled musings directed at the late Dark Lord to hear the cheering of the remaining survivors of the Diagon Alley attack and any who had come to the Alley._

"_Draco magus! Draco magus! Draco magus the Dark's bane" they chanted._

"_For Myrddin's sake!" Harry exclaimed under his breath._

"_Come come Arlyss, you are a hero." replied a voice he recognised._

"_Godric?"_

"_Aye, now they will celebrate." Godric commented, laying a hand on his shoulder._

"_They will celebrate what they should have done, formed ranks and fired blasting curses instead of running like a chicken from a meat-cleaver." Harry spat scathingly before asking; "I don't suppose you need any staff at Hogwarts?"_

"_I'm sure we could find you a job if you know any spells which aren't so utterly lethal." replied Godric jokingly; "Now I believe young Philippa Ravenclaw has been asking after you since you've made two rather impressive visits to us. After the first time, her mother wanted to arrange a betrothal... Unfortunately you'd left by then. Now, I think it is a time for exchanging stories and relaxing."_

_Harry raised an eyebrow and failed to prevent the barest tinge of red from adorning his cheeks at the betrothal comment before grabbing Godric's arm and apparating them to the entrance hall of Dragon Hall, his much developed manor._

"_Welcome to my home Godric, Dragon Hall." Harry said, beckoning him in._

_Striding through the halls with the Lion Warlock behind him, he made his way to the 'Pharaoh's Citadel'. It was one of the courtyards, adorned with the proceeds of his curse-breaking ventures._

"_Godric, one of my areas of expertise is temporal manipulation, I spent the last year for you, I have no idea how long for me, travelling. I went to Rome, Athens and continued east into the Holy Land and onto the borders of the Orient. This is from the land of Egypt, a barren country of desert surrounding a single great river running from the south into the Mediterranean in the north. Much of the contents of this courtyard is from lost treasure caches of the land of sand."_

_The courtyard was a cloister-like building with sand scattered across it, statues and furniture from Egypt, often made from the most precious gold and painted with expensive dyes, cats carved into the arms of the long sofas and bejewelled emblems stuck to the sandstone columns._

"_About that betrothal contract..." Godric began after gaping around him for a moment before dodging out of the way of a bludgeoning hex and bursting out into laughter._

Once again assembled in the Headmaster's office were several members of the Order of the Phoenix, the remainder of the Golden Trio and the retired Dark Lord.

"Do we have any progress?" Dumbledore asked hopefully.

"We've been unable to find anyone of Harry's description in any of the history books." moaned Hermione.

"'Mione and I have examined every book on the history of Hogwarts available." Ron added.

"Indeed, well done, though it is a shame nothing has come of your research." Dumbledore commented; "What of the device Tom?"

"The device is an artefact known through history as 'Chronos' Watch' or 'Myrddin's Hourglass'. Very little is known about it, though from my personal examination, it destroys all but the non-physical mind and soul and rebuilds it after the temporal change." Riddle replied; "I believe it also halts or allows you to control ageing but cannot confirm it."

"Interesting, I must admit to have only ever heard myths of such a device going by a different name, that of the Dragon Mage's pendant." Dumbledore said contemplatively.

Harry spent the rest of the summer holiday or 'Annual Rest' as Godric called it reading through the contents of his newly acquired literary works from across Europe, Northern Africa, Arabia and Asia. Amongst the most interesting was from Italy and contained a ritual which gave the subject the power of the 'shifter'. It required a pentagram carved into marble with the subject's blood mixed with that of a dragon and an immense amount of power, enough that only the most powerful wizards could perform it without dying.

It took two long weeks of non-stop meditation with nutrient potions being spelled into his system until Harry was ready for the ritual. He combined the magical core still residing within his scar and that of the dragon Animagus form with his own. Though he'd come close to magical overload, Harry now had full control of his magic for casting the most delicate engraving spells to the most brutal battlefield magic.

According to the modern magical rankings as known by Tom Riddle, he was a British Grand Sorcerer twice over for the defeats of Morcar and Caradoc or thrice over for defeating Morcar twice, the second occasion being fatal. A Grand Sorcerer was someone who has defeated a Dark Lord in an act of 'Grand Sorcery'. He was also a High Magus in terms of power, it being the highest power level known of. Finally, his control level would give him the title of Master Warlock.

The ritual left Harry unconscious for three days, but afterward, he found himself able to transform into any animal he had seen in person, which after his travels and a trip to London Zoo in 1991, equated to quite a lot.

Shortly afterward, Harry received an owl from one of his contacts in Central Italy. It pleaded for help as they'd had another Dark Wizard rampaging around the countryside.

He transformed into an identical copy of Fawkes, Dumbledore's phoenix and vanished from his home to a back Alley of Rome. It was a short time of flying south toward Naples when he found the Italian Dark Lord's army attacking a walled town.

_Circling twice, the flame-coloured raptor went into a steep dive, transforming into a human between the main gates and drawing a wand in one fluid movement._

_Tiring of the constant fighting, Harry began throwing killing curses and heart attack curses every-which way instead of his usual massive range of curses. Eventually, a small force left the town itself and engaged the enemy, leaving Harry to fight his way through a lesser group toward their leader._

_Despite his best efforts, three very powerful men attacked Harry simultaneously, one clipping him with a bludgeoning hex which sent him spinning into the air and impacting roughly into the ground. A piercing hex slammed into the earth as Harry rolled out of the way and got back onto his feet and resumed casting._

_One screamed as his internal organs were turned into goo as he stepped back from a powerful cutting curse, simultaneously firing an organ liquefying curse. A conjured serpent intercepted the next spell that came at him, exploding into a red mist. Harry's wand flashed like a coloured sabre as it whipped, slashed and thrust through the air, a mixture of spells crossing the battlefield._

_Unfortunately, that was when the earth rocked beneath him, putting him off-balance, allowing a sword-cut to lash into his upper leg. A very powerful blasting curse hit his gleaming steel cuirass, buckling it heavily and finally being stopped by his basilisk hide armour. However, the shockwave wasn't absorbed, sending him rocketing into a small earthwork, causing a horrific cracking sound from his ribs._

_As his attackers came over, he slowly opened his eyes and squinted against the darkness around the edges of his vision. Pouring his magic into his body, Harry stood up unsteadily and drew a dagger. Fast as lightning, he slashed it across the nearest one's throat before repeatedly stabbing it into the stomach of the second before spinning him around and thrusting it into the wizard's spine._

_With barely enough focus, Harry ignored the two corpses and pushed himself to Hogwarts, apparating away with a loud crack, unlike his usual silent apparition._

_Reappearing in the Great Hall, he ignored the students sat around the room and called out through a mouthful of blood;_

"_GODRIC! Here!"_

_The last thing he saw was his blood-covered dagger reflecting his own image up into his eyes as the darkness closed in. His cuirass was torn, the very metal buckled and shredded, revealing the basilisk hide beneath, a spray of crimson coating what was left of the silvery metal._

_An unknown amount of time unconscious and Harry finally awoke in the horribly familiar surroundings of the Dark Hideout and Evil Paradise of the School Nurse. The Hospital Wing._

_Swearing long and loud in a diatribe of mixed Parseltongue and Arabic, Harry slowly slid out of the bed, noting that his favoured green battlerobes, the basilisk hide vambraces, chestpiece and boots were missing. Further inspection revealed that only his wands in their irremovable holsters on his forearms were there along with his loose tunic and trousers. His numerous swords, daggers, poisons collection and other normal items were missing._

_It took a moment of searching to find them on the bed next to him, giving him the opportunity to dress in the moonlight which soaked the room. Once again, Harry was dressed in his forest-green velvet battlerobes over the similarly-coloured trousers and plain linen tunic._

_He had just slipped on his cloak with all the hidden weapons over his basilisk hide vest and vambraces when he heard someone walking in. Twisting around, he flickered slightly with a light crack in a failed attempt to apparate out._

"_You don't think Madam Helga has anti-apparition wards around this room with the number of times Godric tried to escape...?" commented the unseen person in a distinctly amused tone._

_Harry ceased cursing in his personal mix of bastardized Arabic and Parsel before responding dryly;_

"_I could just turn into a dragon and demolish a wall..."_

"_Between facing down a dragon and Madam Helga, I'd take the dragon any day." replied the female voice._

"_Hmmph. Doesn't matter, I was in the middle of disposing of an Italian Dark Lord and got injured. They're far more powerful and dangerous than the common or garden Albion Dark Lords. Frankly, I need to go back to Rome, I have to make sure I finished the job properly." Harry replied disgruntled as he dipped a curved dagger into a vial of viscous silvery-black liquid._

"_And what exactly is that?" asked the woman curiously._

"_Basilisk venom mixed with Nundu's blood." Harry replied shortly as a single spilled drop bored a hole into the stone._

_He quickly stoppered the vial and placed it somewhere within his cloak before striding out into the darkness of the halls, robes billowing behind him. Once out of sight, he transformed into a Griffin and took off down the corridors until he came to the tower staircase and simply dived over the rails, spreading his wings and gliding into the entrance hall._

_Out of the range of the hospital wing anti-apparition wards, Harry transformed and vanished silently, returning to the site of the battle. It took less than an hour of discussion with a local barman to find out that the Dark Lord and his henchmen were all dead with most of his minions dead or injured and captured. Already tired, he quickly bought a room for what was left of the night and collapsed into the rough warmth of the bed._

_He was awake earlier the next morning, despite aching limbs and a splitting headache. Knowing the leach on his magic that trans-continental apparition was, he once more took the form of Fawkes and vanished in a burst of flame, appearing in the Entrance Hall._

_After adjusting his appearance slightly by tying back his hair and applying a very powerful cleaning charm to his armour and clothes, Harry strode into the Great Hall, a pair of swords on his hip, a single dagger visibly protruding from his right boot and several more in sheaths on his waist with a small belt of throwing knives on the edge of his cloak where it was clasped to his left chest._

"_Arlyss!" Godric called out happily; "You finally see fit to grace us with your presence!"_

_Harry glared at him for a moment with enough venom to petrify a basilisk before sighing slightly and visibly tiring before his eyes;_

"_I've been a bit unavailable Godric. You're lucky I was still alive enough to apparate here." he commented as he went round the head table and sank into an offered chair._

"_Do you mind telling me why you came in with strong traces of dark magic, a sword wound, many broken ribs, both front and back and other internal injuries, a dislocated shoulder, cut muscles in your left leg and a blood-coated dagger clutched in your hand?" he enquired of Harry._

"_The first is simple Godric. I use dark magic as it is the strongest branch of magic and best for using on __**evil**__ wizards. Differentiate between dark and evil. The rest are also fairly easy to answer, the sword wound resulted in the cut muscles and a powerful blasting curse sent me into a hillock rather firmly, probably causing the broken ribs, dislocated shoulder and internal injuries." Harry replied as he reached for a pitcher of mead._

"_And the dagger?" prodded Godric._

"_I got myself a Dark Lord and his minions. Mind though, the Italian Dark Lords are far more powerful than the weak ones you get over here in Britain." Harry continued after he took a gulp of the honey liquor._

"_Indeed... You up to teaching today?" Godric asked._

_Half an hour later and Harry was sat at the back of a vaulted room with a slightly raised stage at one end and a duelling piste down the centre. He watched from under a disillusionment charm as the students filed in. Godric was sat with him, also concealed from the eyes of the students._

_Once they had all arrived, Harry dropped lightly to the floor and removed his disillusionment charm. Almost immediately, a fan of crimson stunning spells hurtled across the classroom, each spell carefully moderated as not to cause internal injuries or act as a cross between a stunning spell and a bludgeoning hex. Within five seconds, all of the students were slumped on their desks, unconscious._

_Harry smirked as he made his way to the stage and conjured himself a training dummy and then cloned it until there were dozens lined up against the wall. He then cast a room-wide rennervate spell to awake the students._

"_Okay, completely useless. I was simply sat at the back under a disillusionment charm which leaves a very slight shimmer in the air, always keep a look out for that spell as it is both extremely useful and somewhat flawed." Harry commented; "I am Professor Arlyss Mortesdawn, or as I would prefer, simply Professor Arlyss. I've been asked to teach you to defend yourselves, so if I ever hear of you using the spells I teach to do anything save defend yourselves, I will personally hunt you down and kill you."_

_He then demonstrated the disarming, binding, petrification and stunning spells along with the bludgeoning and piercing hexes and the moderate cutting, fire and blasting curses on the training dummies._

Over the next few years, Harry became a beloved teacher, due to the fact that half of the students remember the two occasions he fought at Hogwarts. He was also well-liked due to his sarcastic sense of humour, biting comments and dislike of the resident school snobs.

The one occasion that someone had doubted his power and skill, they'd ended up losing a duel after Harry petrified them, painted them pink, stuck them to the ceiling, bound them in ropes and transfigured them into a duck. That had gone down well as the entire student body heard of the event and the antagonist found himself subject to school-wide derision.

Harry had also continued on his disposal of Dark Lords across Europe, gaining himself prestige, money and most valuable of all- knowledge. Numerous hideouts contained both the lowest rubbish and the rarest and most valuable dissertations on magic. Unfortunately, the revelation that he was putting together his own set of personal set of spellbooks had people pounding on his door in an attempt to gain copies when he decided that only Philippa Ravenclaw, Godric and Helga would have access to his spells.

_He was sat at the desk in the study of his expansive quarters, scanning yet another demand for control of the school from the Wizard's Council and considering what jinxes to apply to the return message when Philippa walked in, dressed in a simple dress in dark blue with a girdle belt. Instead of the rather adolescent looks she had, the Ravenclaw heiress had grown into a quite beautiful young woman, yet was still continuing to deny the numerous marriage offers pressed on her._

"_Morning Pippa." Harry commented, wincing slightly as he stretched and his latest injuries twinged._

"_Hello Harry." said Philippa, using the shortened nickname; "Where have you been over the last few days?"_

"_Hunting." Harry replied simply._

"_Do you have to go out there and come back injured so often?" she asked softly; _

"_I do. Otherwise, who will stop these lunatics massacring the people, who'll save those unable to defend themselves? Most of all, who'll stop the disease spreading?" Harry answered._

_He was slightly saddened to see a lone tear sliding down one of Philippa's cheeks as he slowly put down the parchment and gazed into her eyes, begging her to understand as she sat on the edge of the desk next to him._

"_Pippa, without my actions continuing, these Dark Lords will have free reign to murder, rape and pillage with impunity. I cannot allow that." he continued softly._

"_I'm sorry Harry, I just can't lose you. Uncle Salazar, cousin Oswald, my little sister Helena, my mother have all died. I just don't want you to go out one day and never return." she whispered tensely._

_'How could he respond to that. Over two years, he'd grown close to Pippa as she'd dealt with the crippling loss to the founding family, leaving just her, Helga and Godric' Harry asked himself_

_The next moment, the beautiful Ravenclaw heiress was straddling his lap, arms wrapped around him and lips locked against his own._

_'Ye gods I am good. Tears to snogging in one sentence.' Harry thought before returning his mind to the young woman wrapped around him._

Over the next year, Harry and Philippa's relationship flourished, as they already were close, the two were often described as two different manifestations of the same soul. They didn't realise that amongst Harry's rituals was a copy of the soul-bonding ritual which gave them access to the other's magical core, any inherited skills such as parseltongue and even the effects of Riddle's device, the Chronos' Watch were copied. However, great upheaval was just around the horizon.

"_Master Arlyss, Milady Philippa, I have been asked to call you to Lord Gryffindor's chambers." came a muffled voice from beyond the heavy oak door._

_Harry was lying on a long sofa, eyes closed, his head in Philippa's lap, one of her hands being gently run through his hair._

"_Aye, I'll be up soon." Harry called._

_Godric had been slowly declining into ill-health over the last half-a-decade and it had become worse over the last winter. Despite the onset and passing of spring, he continued to fall further into ill-health. Helga had left a few months before, saying that she couldn't bear to be the last founder, couldn't have Hogwarts without one of her brothers and sister._

_When the couple entered into the Gryffin's Tower chambers which Godric occupied, they could easily see the man was dying. He was pale, almost as pale as his long-turned-grey beard._

"_Arlyss... Pippa... Glad you could make it. Arlyss, look after Philippa, she is a daughter to me. Philippa, Arlyss is a hero but also a man, don't hesitate to point out his mistakes, don't worship him but love him." Godric whispered tiredly; "Arlyss, in the top drawer of my desk is a ring and a set of deeds, giving you and you alone power over Hogwarts and I want you to bear my sword. Now go, the nurse won't let me drink, so I want you two to get drunk for me. Spend the next few days plastered in my honour."_

_The elderly man then relaxed back and closed his eyes before slowly relaxing into the peaceful embrace of death. Harry, who had been a great friend to Godric simply locked down his emotions, though not before a single tear wound it's way down his face. Philippa however, despite incredible mental control, wept for the man who proclaimed her as a daughter to him. Harry pulled her into an embrace, nuzzling her hair as she cried into his shoulder._

_Eventually the couple made their way down to the Great Hall where the staff and students were assembled. They silently swept to the Head Table. Harry conjured a black sheet over Godric's throne-like chair before standing up on the raised dais, alongside the great owl lectern, a goblet of mead in one hand._

"_A toast, to the late Godric Gryffindor!" he called out._

_After a moment, the toast was taken in a resounding manner, nearly every student and staff-member standing and drinking in honour of the founder._

Despite the fact that he held control over Hogwarts Castle itself and it's wards, Harry held a staff meeting to elect a headmaster. However, the result was the same, after Philippa refused nomination for the position, Harry was unanimously elected as the first Headmaster of Hogwarts.

Over the period of several years, he ruthlessly stamped out any discrimination, bullying and pureblood superiority in the school while at the same time encouraging practical knowledge. Under him, often the muggleborn who were hated in their own homes were brought to Hogwarts early. Indeed, an entire wing of the school was constructed and staff employed to take care of and teach those not old enough to participate in regular Hogwarts life.

The few attacks by both muggle mobs and dark wizards on Hogwarts were foiled with brutality, the Dragon Mage tearing a bloody swathe through any attacking army.

Shortly after Gryffindor's death, Harry and Philippa were 'officially' married as the soul-bonding ritual was an unrecognised form of marriage. During the decade since the soul-bonding ritual, neither had aged a day, though before, Harry had used the Chronos' Watch to age himself to eighteen so as not to appear as a 'pubescent teenager'.

Unfortunately, all was not well on the political front.

_A man in the grey and red robes of the Albion Wizard's Council, with a very short cape over his shoulders, a chain of office and a justiciar's hat strode into the Entrance Hall of Hogwarts Castle._

"_Can we help you?" asked a teacher._

"_Yes, I'm here to inform the Headmaster that this school has come under the jurisdiction of the Wizard's Council and we'll be taking over in the next week, so he'll no longer be needed." pompously stated the councillor._

"_I think not." came a soft voice from behind them._

_The two wheeled around to see a young man wearing a long, hooded doublet, breeches, basilisk hide boots, vambraces and a gleaming steel cuirass striding down the staircase, a beautiful woman on his arm._

"_You have no option." replied the politician._

"_I was left this land by Gryffindor and, I control the wards and as I have done for a decade, I will defend this castle with my life. Also, any attempt to compromise the autonomy of these lands is an attack on me. As Lord of the land, I am well within my rights and happy to exterminate any attacking force before reprising with equal force." Harry continued softly; "I doubt you want a Grand Sorcerer, Master Warlock and High Magus coming down on your ancestral lands. As the Dragon Mage, I have killed more Dark Lords than most people have seen Dark Lords."_

"_N-n-no Lord Mortesdawn." stammered the politician._

"_Excellent, we have an accord." Harry commented just as softly; "I will take any more attacks on Hogwarts' autonomy as an attack on myself and my wife and there is a reason I am called the Dragon Mage. Now go before I have Slytherin's basilisk run you out of the castle and let it be recorded that the last attempt to take over Hogwarts by the Council was in 1005 Anno Domini."_

Then, the viewers were thrown out of the pensieve and into the circular Headmaster's office.

"Where did you find this memory Thomas?" asked Dumbledore.

"In the Chamber of Secrets;" Riddle replied; "It was under a time-delay Fidelius if the residue is anything to go by."

"Someone wanted it to be found..." mused Dumbledore.

"I also found in Slytherin's workshop the instructions for a temporal ritual. It requires an energy crystal be charged for exactly the same number of minutes as years you want to go back. It also requires pure intentions, so if I were to want to go back and restart my reign of terror, it wouldn't work. It's a fairly simple ritual which requires the symbolic sacrifice of blood mixed and burning heather." Riddle continued.

A quick Patronus message had the New Golden Trio, the two youngest Weasley's and Hermione Granger, in the office.

"Sir, you've found something?" asked Hermione the moment she entered, followed by Ron and Ginny.

They were silently directed to the pensieve by Dumbledore. A minute later they emerged, Ron grinning in pride, Hermione in a mixture of worry, pride and mental overdrive. Finally, Ginny looked disappointed, likely because the boy-who-lived was unavailable.

"What did those titles mean?" asked Hermione.

"The titles my dear... A Grand Sorcerer is someone who has defeated a Dark Lord, as I did with Gellert Grindelwald, a High Magus is the highest echelon of magical power, that was last known to have been occupied by Myrddin Emrys. A Master Warlock is someone who has complete and perfect control over their magic and can fine tune spells and the amount of power in them. I believe that the title of Lord Mortesdawn is either that of a peer of the realm or a self-given title." Dumbledore replied.

"We also found a copy of a temporal ritual which carries someone into the past." added Riddle, passing round the sheet of parchment specifying the requirements for the ritual.

None noticed as Hermione Granger applied a Geminio charm and took her own copy of the ritual specifications.

Harry was once more simply relaxing in the embrace of his wife when the Floo in his sitting room burst into green flames and a head appeared in the grate.

"Attack on Diagon Alley my Lord!" called out the person on the Floo.

Harry scrambled up from his place with his head in Philippa's lap and summoned his basilisk hide armour, the hide-lined cuirass and a great helmet.

"Take care love." whispered Philippa.

"You know I will Pippa." Harry said as he kissed her.

A switching spell later and Harry was clad in a black, hooded tunic with his steel and basilisk hide cuirass on top, basilisk hide boots and vambraces visible. The hood of his tunic rested over the silvery metal of his great helmet.

A moment later, he disapparated to Diagon Alley to find it swamped in crimson-robed wizards firing bolts of black-tinged red lightning around.

"Blood mages." Harry hissed angrily.

Vaulting over a collapsed stand, he threw a trident-piercing curse straight ahead into the mob of blood mages. Summoning one of the supporting beams of a derelict shop, he collapsed the frontage into the alley as a chainsaw curse tore through another dark wizard.

Harry quickly turned a patch of the Alley into quicksand and fired a powerful lightning bolt into the semi-liquid substance before transfiguring it back into it's original state, entombing dozens of electrocuted blood mages.

Just as he was stepping forward, a person stepped up to his side, wearing his spare set of basilisk hide armour, coppery-brown hair peeking out from the hood.

"Pippa! If you get hurt..." Harry called.

She simply fired off a blasting curse into the centre of a group, sending them flying from the fountain of mud and stone. Acting as a single unit, the couple strode forward in a blaze of curses, not withholding any lethality. Harry drew a second wand and charged the 'Gladio' spell, creating an invisible sword on each wand.

A vicious horizontal slash left a wizard writhing on the ground, deep cuts into his abdomen. Continuing forward, Philippa fired off obliteration curses at a speed that nobody save her husband could rival. Harry continued dispatching opponents with the sword curses.

"Heroes in our midst..." called the leader of the blood mages.

"Nay, not heroes;" Harry replied; "People who fight where others can't or won't."

Cancelling the sword curse, he countered a cutting curse and replied with a much more powerful cutting curse before stepping back a few feet and lowering his wand from the en garde. Moments later it was up again in a blur, sending off three cutting curses and a bone-exploding curse.

He watched in satisfaction as his target's left arm was reduced to a bloody mess of bone-shards and flayed flesh at the elbow. Turning away for a moment, Harry fired off a pair of killing curses before wheeling around and countering a bloodfire curse and responding with a conjured spear which was quickly vanished.

A jet of green flames of Greek Fire splashed across the battlefield from Harry, the oily fire burning everywhere it landed. Unfortunately, the flames were redirected around his target. The two began to trade blows with sword curses, sometimes channelling spells through the invisible blades, rendering them momentarily visible.

Eventually, Harry used a shredding hex on the blood mage's wand and reduced it into sawdust before removing his head with a decapitation curse followed by a gouging curse to the chest and as the leader died in a spray of blood, the few remaining blood mages collapsed limply to the ground.

Pushing back his hood, Harry pulled off his helmet and shrank it to the size of a thimble before putting it in one of the pouches hanging from his belt. Stepping over the numerous bodies, Harry made his way to his wife and wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a brief but passionate kiss.

"You okay love?" he whispered.

"I'm fine Harry, I've learnt as much as I can from you and can hold my own in a fight." Pippa replied as Harry wrapped an arm around her waist.

Around them, the crowds had begun to gather and were once again chanting loudly;

"Draco magus! Draco magus!"

"For heaven's sake, if they just lined up and fired blasting curses at anyone who tried attacking, life would be some much easier for me."

As they turned to make their way to the apparition point, three people broke ranks from the crowd and rushed toward them. Harry erected an invisible shield before disapparating with Philippa.

Half an hour later, Harry was sat in his study when someone tapped on the door.

"Yes?" he barked.

"Lord Mortesdawn, three visitors who speak a dialect I don't recognise or understand. What little I could understand was that they wish to speak to you." called the voice on the other side of the door.

"Send them in..."

The deputy headmaster, Athelstan of Grimsby held the door open and three people entered. Three very unexpected people. However, Harry merely raised an eyebrow in surprise before noting his Deputy was still there awaiting dismissal.

"You may go Athelstan." Harry said, waiting until he'd left. Switching to modern English, he continued; "Well, I must say this is rather unexpected."

Arrayed before his desk like students being reprimanded were his old friends Hermione and Ron along with the latter's sister.

"I was unaware there were any Temporal Mages capable of millennium travel with any level of accuracy..." Harry commented.

"We found a simple ritual requiring an energy crystal charged for the same number of hours as years we wanted to travel back. It then required mixing blood with burning heather and the travellers to be sat within a pentagram." Hermione replied hesitantly.

Harry froze in horror. That ritual had some nasty side effects which was why he'd locked away the copies in Salazar's workshop off the Chamber of Secrets. He then swore briefly in Hebrew as he dropped his head into his hands.

"I locked away the only copy of that ritual's instructions because you had one chance in every fifty of it going right. You then had forty nine in every fifty of it going wrong either by dismemberment or organ liquefying. You then had twenty-four chances in every fifty of both being dismembered or having your organs liquefied. With three of you, I am immensely surprised that you are all still alive." Harry deadpanned; "Not that it's bad to see you."

He rose from his chair and pulled each of them into a firm hug, making eye contact and quickly sliding into their minds. It was the work of a moment to insert the current language of most of Britain. It would be necessary if they were intending on staying.

"Wulfric!"

A house elf appeared, dressed in a chainmail hauberk with a throwing axe strapped to his back like it was a great Dane Axe.

"Master Arlyss calls?"

"Could you bring supper for five to my dining room please Wulfric." Harry said, reverting to Anglo-Saxon.

The elf vanished with a slight pop leaving Harry shaking his head in amusement.

"Before anyone complains about elven enslavement, they require a master or will die of magic deprivation." Harry commented as Hermione opened her mouth; "I'll be back in a minute."

He then stood up and vanished in a swirl of magic. It took only a few moments of standing with his hand on the central wardstone for him to find Pippa in his private library. He apparated up to the library and updated her on the unusual visitors before walking through from the library to the dining room as a bell rang.

"Come through!" Harry called, wandlessly banishing the door to his study open.

As the three trooped through, they gaped at the room, with a glossy varnished table in the centre, a huge stone fireplace in one o the walls and an opening onto a balcony overlooking the grounds down to the gates. Finally, there were a few swords hung on the walls and a tapestry on the wall around the door to his library.

"Hermione, Ginny, Ron, meet my wife of around a decade, Philippa Mortesdawn, daughter of Rowena Ravenclaw. Pippa, old friends of mine from a time long vacated, Hermione Granger, Ron and Ginny Weasley."

Partway through supper, the Floo in Harry's study roared to life. A minute later, he returned to the table, this time dressed in his battlerobes and basilisk lined cuirass.

"Hogsmeade has been razed to the ground, the Black Order is marching on the castle." he said softly.

"What are you going to do? The Order is much more powerful and has numbers beyond anything we have fought before." Pippa whispered in horror.

"I'm going to show them why this castle is more than a palatial building but a fortress in it's own right. I'm going to kill every last member of that Order that I can and if I die, so be it." he replied, not realising that he was speaking in Arabic.

As he drew one of the swords off the wall and swung it experimentally before conjuring a sheath, Hermione asked;

"What's going on Harry?"

He sighed before replying; "You came in the middle of a war which has been raging for decades. The Black Order are responsible for every Dark Lord I have killed in the last decade. They were simply powerful pawns for a much worse and far more powerful group. Now I'm going to activate the war wards, siege wards, reactive defences, standard defences. I'll probably let the basilisk loose in the castle as well. Then I may use the offensive wards under my control."

As he spoke, a suit of armour in one of the corners held a mirror out at torso-level, displaying the grounds from a point high above the castle.

"We've got half-an-hour. Pippa, I want you to get the students, these three and anyone else useless in combat to the Chamber and while you're at it, release the basilisk. I'm going to call in a few favours I'm owed."

"We'll fight!" said Ron.

"Very well. If you can use the Greater Elemental Curses, basic Dark Arts or if you are proficient in Battle Magic then you may stay and fight. Otherwise you will obey my orders as commander of a besieged fortress." Harry said in a steely tone.

"At least let us stay up here and observe!" begged Hermione.

"Against my better judgement you may stay here." Harry conceded before vanishing in a blast of flames.

Ten minutes later, he appeared in the room with a group of people in the room which quickly expanded itself to fit them. Gesturing forward a tall man with battleship-grey hair in a ponytail and a goatee, Harry introduced them;

"This is Myrddin Emrys, one of my former pupils, a Slytherin and founder of the Order of the Merlin. He's brought a dozen of his best Battle Mages to assist us. Myrddin, you remember Philippa Ravenclaw, now my wife. Speaking of wives, how's your love life?"

"Good to see you too Professor Mortesdawn. Both of you. In response to your question Arlyss, Morgana's fine, though when she's at _that_ time of the month, she puts most Dark Lords to shame." replied the man good-naturedly; "You still writing those books?"

"Yep. Got five on Dark Arts, two on Defence Against the Dark Arts, one on Temporal Magic, five on swordsmanship from around the world, one on Battle Magic, two on Battle Transfiguration, two on Wards and Enchantments. They are in the library, I'll show you them at some point." Harry replied.

He nodded to each of Myrddin's Battle Mages before striding out onto his balcony, placing the mirror showing the Hogwarts grounds on the balustrade of the balcony. Harry then enlarged his great helmet and pulled it over his head before sticking the hood of his tunic to it with a sticking charm.

"Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus eh?" commented Myrddin.

"You know as well as I do what these people are responsible for and capable of Myrddin. This dragon is not just tickled but extraordinarily enraged. Especially when the Black Order is attacking his home." Harry responded from under his helmet.

Swiping his wand down the mirror, Harry deactivated several modified Fidelius charms, revealing low, thick curtain walls with circular towers a long way below the seventh floor that they occupied. As he rapidly tapped the mirror, a spherical shield began to appear around the fortress, enveloping the entire grounds. Then raising his wand to the heavens, Harry began to push pure magic into the wards, channelling it from the ley lines.

After a few minutes, he lowered his wand and holstered it, simply laying his gauntleted hands on the balustrade and looking out over the grounds as the evening mists encompassed them.

"Why didn't you try to return to us?" asked Hermione as she walked up behind him.

"Hermione, several reasons. Were any of you in the position of being stuck in the past, how would you try to escape the situation?" Harry responded with a question.

"Ask a Dumbledore equivalent of course!" stated Ron as he walked over.

"And Ron, who is the Dumbledore of this day and age?" replied Harry exasperatedly; "Hint, he is married to Rowena Ravenclaw's daughter Philippa."

"Oh..."

"Secondly, I am probably the most knowledgeable time mage but frankly, travelling to the future is far harder than travelling to the past. I've done so many experiments on the subject. Thirdly, after a while I gave up. I have a life, a nym-... a beautiful wife, a job. Then there are all the Dark Lords in Europe. I'm doing them in at a minimal rate of one per month." Harry commented, turning to gaze and his old friends.

Hermione gasped upon seeing the glossy full-helm with gold edgings on the eye-slits and a long scar gouged into the metal.

"That was you in the alley earlier." she stated.

Harry simply nodded before returning his gaze to the land immediately in front of him.

"I'm the one known as the Dragon Mage. Frankly I wish you hadn't been there as it was a pretty bloody fight. Not as bad as some I've been through. One occasion I nearly submitted to the Dark Arts when I was fighting in the Alley. Seeing a young girl, less than ten years old being tortured nearly sent me over the edge."


End file.
